Creative Wiltshire

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School children's eSafety project

Primary school children in Chippenham are making a computer game about using the internet safely. Chippenham Children’s Parliament commissioned Creative Wiltshire to devise an animation project about safe use of the internet and cyberbullying. The children have been working with creative digital media production degree students from Wiltshire College.

The project is led by Harriet Sumner and Louise Drake, first year students on the Foundation Degree in Creative Digital Media at Wiltshire College Chippenham. With support from Creative Wiltshire producer Richard White, Harriet and Louise led two development workshops at Chippenham involving children from the local Partnership of Schools.

They led a discussion about using the internet, helped develop scenarios for a game and worked with the children to create artwork for animation.

The internet is now an important factor in the lives of young people so its really important that they learn how to use if safely. We were pleasantly surprised as to how aware they were of some of the dangers and what to do to avoid them.

Harriet Sumner

We worked with the children to develop ideas for a game that could go on their school website. They came up with some great scenarios and some brilliant characters.

Louise Drake

In the coming weeks Harriet, Louise and team will be working with professional games developers Evil Twin Artworks to turn the ideas and artwork they have gathered into a game.

Collaborating with Wiltshire College like this means that local school children have access not only to college facilities but also to the expertise of the students and staff. The Foundation Degree students are working on a live commission, with schools as the client, and genuine financial backers, in this case Chippenham Area Board which is funding the project. The students are also fantastic role models for the young children.

Judy Edwards: Manager – Chippenham Partnership of Schools

The project follows the success of Drive Safe, Walk Safe, a cross phase animation project with Wiltshire College students on level 3 and degree level programmes working with professional animators and the Chippenham Children’s Parliament. This Creative Wiltshire coordinated project provided an opportunity for school children to produce a series of animations on a road safety theme aimed. College students helped develop the childrens ideas, led an animation workshop and had the opportunity to work alongside creatives from Evil Twin Artworks.